Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, France
Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes is a zoo located within the Jardin des Plantes in Paris's 5th arrondissement, spread across several hectares with animals housed in both historic buildings and contemporary enclosures. Visitors encounter mammals, birds, reptiles, and other creatures in a green setting in the city center.
Founded in 1794 on the initiative of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the Ménagerie opened on 11 December with 58 animals, including five survivors brought from the abandoned royal menagerie at Versailles. It reached its present extent in 1860, when director Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire had it enlarged so animals could be studied in more suitable spaces. All buildings, including the 1804 Rotonde, have been listed monuments historiques since 1993.
The Ménagerie functions as both a research facility and an educational center, where visitors learn about wildlife conservation through direct observation.
The zoo occupies about 5.5 hectares in the north-east corner of the Jardin des Plantes, bordered by rue Cuvier to the north-west and quai Saint-Bernard to the north-east. Enter from the garden side or from the Seine; the grounds are flat and walkable. All buildings, including the enclosures, have been listed as historical monuments since 1993, so paths wind between 19th-century structures rather than through open paddocks.
The menagerie coordinates five European Endangered Species Programmes (EEP) and keeps the studbooks (ESB) for these species, as a permanent member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. It is also a member of WAZA. Among French zoos it is one of the few to hold tree kangaroos, orangutans and Tasmanian devils.
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